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Keeping up with state licenses and NBRC credentials

By Shawna Strickland posted 01-25-2015 11:57

  

I don't think anyone will be surprised to learn that the AARC Customer Service team, Reagan (the AARC continuing education coordinator), and I receive a lot of questions about renewing state licenses and NBRC credentials. This can be a tricky part of professional life to navigate, especially for new RTs. I know that many (hopefully all) of our educators talk about these things at graduation time but not every RT will remember that conversation.

First, let's talk about CRCE. Continuing respiratory care education is important to our practice though many of us think of it as a nuisance and waste of time. Sometimes CRCE takes a current concept like airway clearance or arterial punctures or aerosolized medications and expands your knowledge and sometimes continuing education introduces you to an entirely new concept. Think about this: very few of us really had Ebola Virus Disease on our radar last October but that exploded onto the US health care scene in a big way. How can we effectively care for the patient with EVD if we don't learn more about it? Solution: continuing education. What about new modes of ventilation? Think back to when NAVA or APRV or some other new mode of ventilation was released. How did you learn about it? Continuing education. I know I have a bit of a bias about this topic but I would love to see more people take their license/credential CRCE requirements with a more positive attitude than the oft-heard "I just need some hours." Remember that our patients benefit from our knowledge. Isn't excellent patient care our goal?

***I will give a special shout out to the thousands of RTs I saw at AARC Congress 2014 in Las Vegas last month. Every single RT I ran into was really engaged and interested in learning new things and connecting with fellow RTs over current issues in respiratory therapy. If you haven't experienced this before, I encourage you to think about attending AARC Congress 2015 in Tampa.

My second point is about state licensure requirements. We all know the importance of state licensure so I won't bore you with that message. You earned your credential, you obtained a license, and now you have to keep that license if you want to keep working. It's not that hard: most, though not all, states require that you earn a minimum number of CRCE per year to renew your license. Some states mandate that you have to earn a certain percentage of those hours at live events and only a certain percentage can be earned in the non-traditional format (anything not live: online courses, monographs, DVDs, etc). Some states mandate that you have certain special topics every renewal period, like ethics, disaster preparedness, and/or patient safety. The AARC's state licensure information page is a good place to get a quick look at the requirement but make sure you visit your state board's webpage for definitive information.  Many of the states only want proof of your CRCE if you are audited, though some states-like Florida-ask you to prove your CRCE every year. If you are audited and you are an AARC member, you can then go to the AARC transcript webpage, log in, and print off the CRCE for the time period of your license to send in to the state with your renewal application and fees. Simple. :)

Lastly, renewing credentials is required for those who have earned a credential after 2002. The NBRC requires that you renew your credential every 5 years with 30 CRCE. Yes, it costs money. Most things in life do, including that Venti Caramel Macchiato I absolutely love at Starbucks and the $4 a box Girl Scout Cookies (why don't I feel thin after eating a box of Thin Mints??). I would argue that the $25 I send to the NBRC + 30 CRCE every 5 years is worth keeping my credentials, especially since I HATE taking tests with a passion. So do the math...in 5 years, most of us will accumulate way more than 30 CRCE just to maintain our state licenses...and more than we need to renew our credentials with the NBRC. Again, as long as you're an AARC member and you attend AARC approved events, you will have that transcript to prove your CRCE. You just input the data on the NBRC website when they send you the "it is time to renew" email and submit your fees (if you haven't kept up with that $25/year membership), and you're done for another 5 years.

The big question: where do I go to get CRCE? Wait...let me rephrase that...the big question we get a lot is: Where do I go to get FREE CRCE? Well, the answer is simple: you're an AARC member, so go to the AARC. As a member of the AARC, you have access to several free CRCE opportunities every year. The AARC holds about 20-22 live webcasts each year. The topics vary from session to session so there will likely be something that interests you at least a few times a year. These live webcasts are only for AARC members and are always FREE. The AARC also has 32 FREE non-traditional (online) CRCEs available in AARC University for members, which includes 12 individual CRCE through the Journal courses (one each month of the year) as well as courses on various topics like smoking cessation and aerosol delivery. Even if you're not available for every live webcast or forget to complete one month of CRCE through the Journal, the fact that there are over 50 FREE CRCE for members means you can easily satisfy your state license (and I mean ANY state license) requirements every year without paying a dime...as long as you are an AARC member.

The AARC also has CRCE available for purchase in the AARC University. Some courses are pretty cheap ($7.50) while some are pretty expensive. The more expensive courses are much more in-depth and offer a lot more CRCE (think 10, 12, 13.5 CRCE) than the cheaper courses. The point is, there are options regardless of what you need. Need a quick, 1 CRCE course? There are about 80 options. Thinking of challenging the NBRC ACCS course? There's a very big, very detailed Adult Critical Care Specialist 13.5 CRCE course that is excellent for preparing for that test (this is the course I used to prepare for my credential).

So, I pay $78.50/year for AARC membership, $25/year for NBRC membership, $67/year for my TX license (all states are somewhere between $25-$95/year if you break the license fees down by year rather than licensing period) and potentially $0/year for CRCE to maintain my professional livelihood. That's $170.50 (less than $200/year regardless of your state) to make sure I can still function as an RT and earn a living wage. Personally, that's a small price to pay to continue to practice and one I'll gladly pay, even if I have to sacrifice some of my Caramel Macchiatos, that box of Thin Mints, or a few trips to Chipotle.

Links of interest:
State licensing board contacts: http://www.aarc.org/resources/advocacy/state-licensure-contacts/
State licensing board information: http://www.aarc.org/resources/advocacy/state-licensure-information/
National Board for Respiratory Care: http://www.nbrc.org
AARC webcasts: http://www.aarc.org/upcoming-programs/
AARC University: http://learning.aarc.org/store/provider/provider09.php
AARC transcript: https://secure.aarc.org/sign_in/?path=http%3a%2f%2fc.aarc.org/crce_transcript/index.cfm

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03-17-2015 12:58

Hi, what wonderful information here. You might know about my concern. I hold RT license in three states, two of which require CRCE's either yearly or biyearly. I am chasing my tail living in Michigan, a state that does not require to get official CRCE's, that I need but my Michigan peers do not.
I am up to renew PALS, which counted for CRCE in VA and the hospital applied to AARC to make it so. I don't see any place in Michigan who has done this, so when I re-certify will they not count for CRCE? And how can I encourage my hospital to make it so?
The true dilemma comes with the Pediatric CEU's that I need because I have my NPS credential (neonatal/pediatric specialty) and need to collect 50% peds CEU's. So, I am really counting on my PALS renewal to do the trick.
What do you recommend I do to get Michigan hospitals to make it matter for folks who hold licenses in other states. And, will it count for CEU's if they don't show up on the AARC list of approved CRCE's?